Athletes move out as BDO takes over

Athletes move out as BDO takes over - The West Australian

Michael Horsfall and Phil Bossert with athletes. Picture: Ben Crabtree/The West Australian

The last-minute shift of Big Day Out from Claremont Showground to Arena Joondalup has upset local sporting clubs that train and compete at the northern suburbs venue.

This week the festival's promoters blamed the Town of Claremont for having to move the event to Joondalup just weeks out from the festival date on February 2.

Joondalup Little Athletics Centre president Simon Davis said the club, which has 400 registered athletes, would be unable to hold training sessions or competitions at their home venue, Arena Joondalup, for seven weeks.

Mr Davis said it had been hard to make alternative arrangements at such short notice, particularly as it was late in the season when they had State-level events to prepare for and host.

But he said the venue's manager, VenuesWest, and the City of Joondalup had helped organise for them to move to Santiago Park in Ocean Reef in the interim.

"This disrupts the season - there's no doubt - and we are a volunteer club, so someone like myself has had to spend quite a bit of time this week reacting to this and making changes," Mr Davis said.

"It is a key time of the year so it's a bit like a footy team being told they have been kicked off their training oval a month before the finals."

VenuesWest chairman Graham Partridge said they had agreed to pay to move the sporting club's equipment to Ocean Reef oval.